The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-09-01

Democracy to submit all Individual option
and intelligence and all the popular right
of self government to the within, caprice,
and vanity of one person, two persons, or
three persons who may arrogate to them
selves the arbitration and direction OF Re-
pubicanism in Virginia.
THE MOZART HALL CONVENTION.
1t may here be said that the State Com
mittee had no power to alter the Organiza-
tion adopted by convention. 1 say no
convention ever knowingly adopted such
plan of organization. And | say that while
no committee has right to usurp popular
powers and popular rights, that every com
m.ttee has the right to sever such chains
and set the people free. This was not done,
and so persisted the last hope of a unani-
nous outpouring of the Republican people
at the polls There would have been no
one to resent such action except the few
J who had selfish purposes to subserve. 1t
the committee had reaffirmed the Republi-
can platform of 1885. and then flung the
flag to the wind, invoking the spirit of
1879 and inviting the Republican masses
everywhere through the Commonwealth to
gather in their respective bailiWicks at
their own time and in their own way to send
delegates to such convention as was held
at Mozart Hall in 1879, then, according to
their own will, to organize the party, pre-
pare it's platform and choose it's leaders
then we should have had solid column
against Democracy and spirit throughout
the column which in victory or defeat
would have been that OF harmony and en-
thusiasm. AS it is. if the old methods are
to be pursued if loyalty to an individual
is to be made the test of Republlcanism
if the machinery Of the party is to override
it's membership and the people are to have
no part, except to register the edicts Of
the Executive Committee. the fate which
overlook US IN 1888. 1884 and 1885 land
! would have overwhelmed US in 1886 but
that the people took the matter in their
own hands) will be the inevitable end.
THE REPUBLICAN WATERLOO,
do not know what can now be done to
avert that calamity The responsibility
for it, if it come, must rest on those who
thus bring the issue to point so narrow
that there seems room for but one man and
his personal adher ents to stand on. | read
this address. with its platitudes about mat
tiers of which one half of the people know
nothing and the other half care nothing,
and compare it with the ringing call sent
forth from Richmond and signed by patr1-
otto men from every corner of the State in
1879. | look for those men-where are
they ? Jostled from the path OF service
! by persistent reTuSal TO consult InolI
rights or the will of their constituents.
The path of Republicanism in this State
from 1879 until now is strewn with the
corpses. not Of its opponents, but of those
who were its earliest pioneers and most
doughty champions. The brilliant staff
and the DEVOTED army have been forced by
one misguided purpose. to lay their bones
in the Egypt. Spain, and Russia of rash
political enterprises. The Moreaus have
been sacriiced-tney were too near the
throne. The Louchets and McDonalds
have been sent into exile. The Murats
and ST. Cyrs have been driven into oppo-
sition-they were too much talked of and
the army itself, what is left of it, has be-
come mere instrument to be hurled hlth-
er and thither, regardless of loss, regard
less of all higher aims than the will and
the objects of those controlling forces
which will not be satisfied until they have
reached their Waterloo.
A FALSE ISSUE RAISED.
At this juncture of affairs. it seems to
me. no Republican should justify his own
supineness by that of others or submit to
wrongs because the task of righting it